RiL028 Round Two - New Day (Main Street Records)
/For years I believed the vocals, on both 'New Day' and 'I'm Your Brother' on Main Street Records, to be Chez Damier. It's the beauty of doing this series of 'Records I Love' that I often find decades old information to be wrong and uncover some of the many mysteries of house. The voice is not a million miles from the soft delivery of Damier but it was actually performed by a session singer called Andrew Caine, who also appeared on records for Yazz, Bananarama, Zoe (Sunshine on a Rainy Day) and even ended up on productions for Tom Jones, Westlife, Kylie and Robbie Williams! So not your normal everyday underground house vocalist then. I must apologise if this news will dispel the magic from two of the greatest ever house music vocal tracks for you (as it did somewhat for me) but facts are facts. I am also not sure if Mr Caine's lack of kudos had anything to do with Main Street's highly respected owners Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus (aka Basic Channel) leaving his name off the label copy of both singles. Whatever we now think about this story we can still be sure that Caine gave the session a touch of magic. There have not been many vocals recorded since in a dance record that have managed to deliver such a feeling of melancholy that tears at the heart strings with a groove that insists that you still dance. Discogs prices for this superb record are lower than they have been in the past (as I write in 2015) but a mint copy will still set you back £12-15.
It is the opening track of my Pleasure Rooms mix recorded exclusively for this blog and you can find it opening up the mix below...